


Seniority

by tastewithouttalent



Category: Fifth Element (1997)
Genre: Age Difference, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Post-Coital Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-13 18:09:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21001967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tastewithouttalent/pseuds/tastewithouttalent
Summary: "Cornelius was content before, David thinks; in moments like this, when they’re sprawled together in the tangle they’ve made of the machine-pressed bedsheets, he can let himself wonder if he brought some additional happiness into the other’s man’s life, if he has been a source of illumination for Cornelius as much as Cornelius has been the safe harbor for David in a city determined to surge forward whether he can keep himself afloat in it or not." Cornelius and David appreciate each other's company and resolve a question.





	Seniority

Cornelius is always very quiet when they’re in bed together.

David likes quiet. It’s one of the things he appreciates most about the soft, worn-in comfort of the apartment he shares with the older man. The walls are well-insulated, and their skyscraping apartment building is tucked away into a corner of the city that is somewhat distant from the major routes that have an ambulance or a police siren whining down them every handful of minutes, day or night. David likes the peace that serves as a backdrop for the soft music in which he wraps his days like a blanket; he even likes the small rooms, narrow and short enough to be closer to cupboards than a proper living space. He can tuck himself away into one and spend long hours of the day there without so much as a word from anyone else, and even when he is drawn back to the surface of reality from the sewing or reading or studying in which he has lost himself, it is by the gentle sound of Cornelius’s voice asking what he wants for dinner, or the touch of a careful hand pressing to his shoulder to let him know it’s his turn for the shower in the corner. David likes the quiet, and the apartment, and Cornelius, and all together he thinks he would be hard-pressed to even imagine more contentment for himself than what he has here.

He thinks Cornelius is happy too. He certainly has made a life for himself in the space in which they live; even when David first came to live with him, to claim a corner of the apartment with the self-conscious shyness that was even clearer in him in those days than it is now, it was clear at a glance that Cornelius’s presence has layered itself into the space, has left its mark in the decorations hanging at the walls and the books heaped on the flat surfaces and the soft warmth of the room, as if it were panelled with wood instead of hardened plastic worn smooth by decades of feet. Cornelius was content before, David thinks; in moments like this, when they’re sprawled together in the tangle they’ve made of the machine-pressed bedsheets, he can let himself wonder if he brought some additional happiness into the other’s man’s life, if he has been a source of illumination for Cornelius as much as Cornelius has been the safe harbor for David in a city determined to surge forward whether he can keep himself afloat in it or not. It’s an indulgent thought, not one which he would usually find the nerve to consider; but with his head pressing to Cornelius’s shoulder and Cornelius’s arm weighting comfortably around his back, David takes the chance to shut his eyes and linger in the possibility.

David is drowsy in himself, languid with spent pleasure and too warm to find the motivation for the movement that will tip him over the edge into uncomfortable. With the automated bed waiting to pull away the mattress from under them as soon as they get up off it, David is in no hurry to rise, and Cornelius is lying flat on his back, breathing hard as he catches himself back from their very recent exertions. David can listen to the pattern of the older man’s breathing, can count seconds by the thud of Cornelius’s heartbeat in his chest, and when he moves it’s only to slide a little closer over the other so he can better align the weight of his body atop Cornelius’s. He listens to Cornelius’s breathing soften, listens to the pace of the other’s heartbeat ease from the rush of adrenaline that comes hand-in-hand with pleasure, but even after Cornelius has entirely composed himself he doesn’t move to slide David away or speak to suggest that they rise. It’s an unusual indulgence from a man who is prone to fussing with everything in the apartment over the course of a day, and sometimes twice over if he lacks anything else to do; but David is unusually calm himself, and with his usual tight-wound self-consciousness unravelled he is perfectly content to stay right where he is as long as Cornelius will let him. They lie silent across the bed, David’s head pillowed at Cornelius’s shoulder and Cornelius’s fingers wandering idly against the line of David’s back, until finally Cornelius takes a breath that David can feel shift the weight of his head atop the other and sighs heavily.

“I’m too old for you, David.”

David opens his eyes. For a moment they stay as they are, sprawled together over the span of their bed; then he lifts his head in a rush, pushing against his arm lying over Cornelius’s chest as he does. The pressure forces an exhale from the other man and tightens his forehead on discomfort but David doesn’t pause to offer an apology before he’s blurting an answer.

“No you’re not!” Cornelius tips his head to the side to raise an eyebrow at David and David is forced to retreat back to a better argumentative position. “I don’t care if you are.” He shifts so he can free Cornelius from under the press of his arm and fit his hold around the other’s waist to brace them close together. “I don’t want to be with someone else, Fath--” Cornelius grimaces and David reels himself back from the habitual title. “Cornelius.”

Cornelius sighs. “I know,” he says, and lifts his hand to brush David’s hair back across his forehead. “You’re comfortable here with me.” His fingers slide over the hair cut short before David’s ear and up to smooth against the back of the other’s head with a touch that is as much a caress as appreciation. “That doesn’t mean that an old man should be hoarding you all to himself.”

David grimaces. “Don’t say that.”

Cornelius shrugs. “It’s true,” he says calmly. “I know you’re content here. I hope I make you happy--”

“You  _ do_.”

“--but you might be happier somewhere else,  _ with _ someone else.” Cornelius lifts his hand to smooth across David’s hair again. “Not going to bed with a man old enough to be your grandfather.”

“You’re not,” David says. His throat is tight; there’s pressure against his chest and trembling into the tips of his fingers. He presses his hand harder against Cornelius’s back to stop the motion, although he’s pretty sure Cornelius can feel it all the same. “I  _ am _ happy. Here, with you.”

“Are you sure?” Cornelius asks. He lifts his arm from where he has been holding to David’s waist so he can touch his fingers to the other’s cheek. “You have been with me a long time, David. You respect my position, of course, but that’s not the same thing as…” He pauses, struggling for euphemism as his cheeks darken towards red, before he clears his throat. “Love.”

David presses his mouth closed while he tries to find words to answer this. His thoughts are slippery, they break free of his grip as he tries to reel them in, and every time he tries to take a breath the pressure in his chest distracts him away from what he’s trying to do. Finally he manages an inhale and blurts the best answer he can find, with the words catching to break in the back of his throat as he speaks them. “Are you breaking up with me?”

Cornelius’s eyes open wide. “What?” he says, and presses his hand up from David’s cheek to cradle the back of the other’s head. “No! I was just…” He lifts his other hand to gesture through the air without loosening the grip he has against the back of David’s neck. “...Considering. Wondering.” His hand comes back to stroke across David’s cheek. “I just wanted to give you the option if you...wished for something else.”

“I don’t,” David says. “I don’t want to move out and I don’t want to leave you.” Cornelius’s gaze goes soft and David ducks his head down so his short hair can give a little bit of a barrier between Cornelius’s attention and the burn starting behind his own eyes. “Please don’t make me.”

The hand at David’s neck slides up to catch at the back of his head; when Cornelius pulls down David gives in immediately to press his face against the other’s shoulder. “I won’t make you go anywhere,” Cornelius says. David can feel the comforting hum of the other’s voice vibrating against the inside of his chest to smooth away some of the pressure that clutched itself around him. He has to press his eyes shut and breathe hard to hold back the knot trying to rise into a sob of relief in his throat. “You can stay as long as you want, of course.” The brace of his hand at the back of David’s head slides down to make a caress out of the weight of his touch. “I know a good thing when I have it, I’m not in any rush to lose you.”

“You won’t,” David says. He tightens his arm around Cornelius’s waist and turns his head to the side so he can speak with a little more clarity, even if his voice is still ratcheted taut around the tension in his chest. “You’ll have to kick me out to get rid of me.”

Cornelius huffs a breath. “Alright,” he says. He lifts his free hand to touch against David’s shoulder, pressing warmth against the other’s skin before he slides his palm down to smooth across David’s shoulder and across the shape of his back. “I won’t try again.” His fingers slide up, smoothing away the tension in David’s body under their weight, and David feels himself shifting back into some part of the drowsy comfort he was lingering in before. They’re quiet for a moment; then Cornelius speaks again, in a deliberately light tone. “I’m still too old for you.”

“Then I’m too young for you,” David says without lifting his head. “We’re both putting up with inconveniences.” He pauses, turning over words on his tongue, wondering if he has the daring to give them voice; and then he steels himself, and forces them free. “Old man.”

The teasing doesn’t come out as lightly as he wishes it would; his voice quakes over this deliberate disrespect until he feels like he’s as likely to choke on it as he was on the threat of tears, and for a moment there is crystalline, ringing silence in the apartment, so complete David can hear the pound of his heart in his chest as his mind floods with a thousand regrets in the span of a single breath. Then Cornelius huffs an exhale, the breathless soft of true laughter against his lips, and David starts to smile in spite of himself as Cornelius begins to chuckle against him. For a minute they stay like that, Cornelius laughing and David pressing his helpless smile into the other’s shoulder, and when Cornelius catches his breath back he couples his composure with the movement of his fingers stroking through the short of David’s hair.

“I suppose I asked for that,” he says. “Alright. We’ll continue on as we have, then?”

David ducks into a nod without lifting his head. “If you don’t mind.”

“Oh, certainly,” Cornelius says. “It’s a terrible burden I’m taking on, keeping a handsome young man around to tidy up after me and listen to my ramblings and dote on my every whim. But some things require sacrifices. Keep that in mind, David.”

David smiles. “Yes, Father.” That makes Cornelius laugh again, gently, and after a moment David collects himself enough to lift his head so he can look up to the other’s face. Cornelius has his head turned to look down at him, and a smile creasing the corner of his mouth, and if there’s not amusement at his eyes it’s only because his gaze is too soft with affection to allow space for anything else. David looks at him for as long as he can stand to have Cornelius looking at him like that; then he tightens the arm he has looped around the other, hard enough that Cornelius gusts an exhale with the force, and leans in to press a kiss against the other’s mouth while Cornelius is still trying to catch his breath.

It takes Cornelius a moment to steady himself enough to respond to David’s kiss in kind; but when his hand tightens at David’s hair, and his head turns to match itself to David’s own, David finds the warmth waiting for him more than enough to make up for the brief delay.


End file.
